1. European Maritime Safety Agency
Quality Shipping: XXI Century
Standards
Seafaring Careers: Raising the profile
St. Petersburg 22nd 23rd of October 2008
Michael Hunter
Head of Unit B.1
Safety Assessment and Inspections
Quality Shipping: XXI Century Standards
Seafaring Careers: Raising the profile
On behalf of EMSA and our Executive Director Willem de Ruiter, I would like to thank Director General Nikolay A. Reshetov for your kind invitation.

2. Ways to improve the maritime vocation in the eyes of youngsters belonging to the traditional maritime nations of Europe?
This seminar also gives me the opportunity to briefly present the work of the European Maritime Safety Agency when addressing the theme of the forum: Seafaring Careers: Raising the profile.

3. EMSA - Background December 12, 1999, ERIKA The European Commission
Reinforces existing maritime
legislation
The ERIKA I & II packages
But first let me give you a brief introduction of the organisation I represent. The background for the establishment of EMSA is found in one of the most highlighted accidents in Europe, the sinking of the oil tanker Erika, flagged in Malta, managed by an Italian Company, classed by RINA and chartered by Total. This gave the European Commission a cause to look into existing European maritime legislation, which led to an overhaul of legislation and consequently the adoption of the Erika I & II Package.

4. EMSA - Legal Basis EMSA established as part of the ERIKA II package
Regulation (EC) 1406/2002
Regulation (EC) 1644/2003
Regulation (EC) 724/2004
Regulation (EC) 2038/2006
The legal basis to establish an agency focusing on the maritime area emanates from Erika II maritime safety package, including European Community Regulation 1406/2002. This Regulation has been amended three times by (EC) 1644/2003, (EC) 724/2004 and latest by (EC) 2038/2006. It was also decided to locate the agency in Lisbon.

5. EMSA - Tasks The Agency carries out technical tasks related to:
Prevention of pollution at sea
Response to pollution by ships
Ensuring Maritime Security (ship-related aspects)
Improving Maritime Safety
The main mandate that has been given to EMSA addresses four major maritime areas:
Prevention of pollution at sea
Response to pollution by ships
Ensuring Maritime Security
Improving Maritime Safety

6. EMSA - Organisation
Our Executive Director, Willem de Ruiter, has recently reorganised the Agency into three departments.
Department A. Corporate Services
Department B. Implementation
Department C. Operations
My activities fall under Dep. B as Head of Unit B.1 Safety, Assessments and Inspections. However there are two more Units within the department:
Unit B.2 Ship safety
Unit B.3 Marine Environment, Training and Statistics
My Unit primarily deals with monitoring of the implementation of some of the most important European maritime legislations. This monitoring is achieved by four sections:
Section B.1.1 Visits to Member States
Section B.1.2 Assessments of Classification Societies
Section B.1.3 Training of Seafarers
Section B1.4 Maritime Security
In order to contribute to this forum I have been assisted by Section B.1.3 Training of Seafarers.

7. EMSA – B.1.3 Training of seafarers
Comprising nine staff, experienced in different fields:
Five master mariner and one marine engineer.
Five having maritime administration background
Four having maritime educational background
Three of whom holds PhD. degree
This Section was established in the first quarter of 2005 and currently comprises of nine staff members all with varied experience, related to the training of seafarers.

8. EMSA – B.1.3 Training of seafarers
Main task according to European legislation
Assistance to the Commission and the Member States to verify whether the country concerned meets all the requirements of the STCW Convention and whether the appropriate measures have been taken to prevent fraud involving certificates (2001/25/EC)
Assistance to the Commission to verify on a regular basis and at least every five years that Member States comply with the minimum requirements laid down by (this) Directive. (2005/45/EC)
The main task of this section is to give assistance to the European Commission in order to fulfil community legislation concerning two areas
According to Directive 2001/25/EC visit countries outside EU in order to draft factual reports on the status of these countries maritime educational system. This is the required input for the assessment conducted by the European Commission in order to recognise the visited country at community level. Furthermore, this is also applicable to new countries that at present have not yet been recognised at community level.
Secondly but not less important, to give assistance to the European Commission with visits to Member States in order to verify the implementation of Directive 2005/45/EC.

9. EMSA – B.1.3 Training of seafarers
Visited non-EU countries
Visited EU Member States
Algeria
Belgium
Bangladesh
Bulgaria
Cape Verde
Cyprus
Croatia
Italy
Ecuador
Malta
Egypt
Poland
Georgia
Portugal
Israel
Romania
Morocco
Sweden
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Tunisia
Turkey
Philippines
Uruguay
So far this section has visited fifteen countries outside EU and nine European Member States.

10. Ways to improve the maritime vocation in the eyes of youngsters belonging to the traditional maritime nations of Europe?
The subject that I was asked to focus on during this seminar was “Ways to improve the maritime vocation in the eyes of youngsters belonging to the tradition maritime nations of Europe”. This may be one of the major challenges facing the European Shipping Cluster. In order to prepare for this presentation I gathered my colleagues dealing with education and certification systems in order to hear their views on this subject. This presentation is the results of those discussions.

11. Ways to improve the maritime vocation
Three relevant questions to answer
What is the seafaring profession about?
What are the requirements to be fulfilled?
What is the seafarers’ environment?
In order to provide a better understanding of the complexity related to improve youngster perception of the maritime vocation, I would like to address three important questions:
-What is the seafaring profession about?
First of all, going onboard a ship today, not even necessarily a new ship, you encounter a highly complex environment composed of loading instruments on tankers or gas carriers, sophisticated optimising control tools for engines and not least the modern bridge, equipped with different Displays, RADAR, ARPA, ECDIS satellite communication devices. This gives an impression of complexity and a need for significant knowledge to operate and manage the work.
Although, taking a ship from port A to port B does not necessarily need to be a difficult task if all things go right. However if things do go wrong, crew onboard need to be able to act, not only for lifesaving but also the necessary actions for damage stability.
To illustrate the danger of the seafaring profession I would note the accident with the Swedish vessel M/S Finnbirch in the Baltic Sea, This accident took place approximately one year ago. The rescue helicopter had problems picking up the fourteen crew members. The crew went in to the water. One Filipino seafarer died in the hospital after being rescued and the Swedish Chef Mate went missing.
The seafaring profession is a highly skilled occupation with no margins of error and things going wrong can lead to severe consequences.

12. Ways to improve the maritime vocation
Three relevant questions to answer
What is the seafaring profession about?
What are the requirements to be fulfilled?
What is the seafarers’ environment?
The second question focuses on the requirements, which addresses the entire spectrum from medical fitness to holding proper certificate for the duties on board. Everything starts with education. This originates from the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as amended. At European level the requirements have been transposed into Directive2001/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 on the minimum level of training of seafarers.

13. Ways to improve the maritime vocation
Three relevant questions to answer
What is the seafaring profession about?
What are the requirements to be fulfilled?
What is the seafarers’ environment?
This Directive does not stipulate that the education should be at a higher educational level but this can be a requirement of the individual Member State.
In other countries this type of education can be conducted at secondary level education or in Training Centres monitored by the maritime administrations. There can also be a combination of the two practices within the same country, which is the case in some European Member States.

14. Ways to improve the maritime vocation
Three relevant questions to answer
What is the seafaring profession about?
What are the requirements to be fulfilled?
What is the seafarers’ environment?
Salary
Family (children and spouses)
Possibilities to stay in contact
Possibility to be promoted
Culture to start business
Time onboard vs. time at home
Get a good job at home
The third question addresses the environment or context of the seafarer.
Salary Being one of the most important factors but also highly diversified.
Family (children or spouses) Depending on family traditions, core family or extended family responsibility. Work ideology in the country i.e. is it common that both parents work outside the home.
Possibilities to stay in contact This has been raised as one of the more important factors for seafarers.
Possibility to be promoted Depending on the composition of the crew, operational level officers from one country and senior officers from another country.
Culture to start business If the objective with a career at sea is to save money in order to start a business, then it is likely that the seafarer wants to work more in order to leave the job earlier.
Time onboard vs. time at home This has also been raised as one of the strong factors affecting the view of the profession, and of course with an increasing shortage of seafarer the tour of duties is likely to be longer.
Get a good job at home If there is a high demand for qualified seafarers to fill vacancies ashore then that is one of the parameters that affect the time spent in the profession. On the other hand in some countries it is difficult for the seafarers to be capable of taking up duties in shore based organisations without additional education.

15. The global state of affairs?
A generalised picture
In Country “High Level”
In Country “Minimum Level”
Generally higher salaries, but…
Relatively fast promotion opportunities
Shorter tour of duties
High average age
Officers with experience, highly attractive in Administrations etc.
High % start directly to work ashore i.e. “power plants etc”
What is then the global state of affairs when it comes to describing the seafaring profession? To give some insight on this I have divided my generalised views into two. First describing countries with a high level education system thus putting the requirements well above what's required by the STCW educational standard. It is important to stress that “high educational level” countries can be found all around the world. However some issues may be extracted from this picture:
Generally higher salaries, but… When it comes to the question of salaries it is quite clear that there is a correlation between high education level and higher salaries. Although, I would like to point out that the high education level systems exist in some of the new EU Member States where the salaries still are relatively modest.
Relatively fast promotion opportunities This may have different explanations; can be that some of these countries control the ownership of a high number of ships and traditionally want the senior officers to be from a similar culture.
Shorter tour of duties Because of the relatively high number of senior officers from “high education level” countries there might be a different tradition of tour of duties which gives a division in the length of the tour depending on country/education/culture background rather than rank.
High average age As stated in many reports this is a serious problem and probably one of the reasons why we are gathered to discuss this theme today.
Officers with experience, highly attractive in Administrations etc. Obviously, if there is a lack of experienced people to recruit from and administrations need to fill vacancies, there will be a “cut throat” competition.
High % start directly to work ashore i.e. “power plants etc” Maybe not so obvious, although a serious problem in some EU Member States. Students especially from the marine engineering education rarely take a seafarer career. They are recruited to work in power plants or similar facilities immediately after concluding their education.

16. The global state of affairs?
A generalised picture
In Country “High Level”
In Country “Minimum Level”
Normally low salaries, which may increase
Longer tour of duties, with a risk to be even longer
Demand factors, may affect time spent in the profession
In some countries, high number of dropouts from education
In comparison, what is the generalised situation in those countries that follow the “minimum education level” which can be described as fulfilling just the minimum requirements of different maritime standards.
Normally low salaries, which may increase Generally a seafarer from this category of countries earns less money than those previously described. However considering the present situation even the lowest wages may soon increase.
Longer tour of duties, with a risk to be even longer The tour of duties are normally longer, maybe six to ten months and only a short time at home. At present this is also the rubber-band relief for the critical situation with shortage of seafarers. As long as it is possible to extend the tour of duty for the seafarer then the ship will be manned.
Demand factors, may affect time spent in the profession Demand may both increase the salaries and in addition lead to longer tours of duty. This gives the seafarer the possibility to earn (which for him is good) the necessary money to establish a business, and to have an acceptable social and family life. However, it may also shorten the time spent in the seafaring profession and consequently lead to expand the manning crises.
In some countries there are a high number of dropouts from education In some systems, maritime education attracts many students from poor backgrounds. If this also is combined with private training centres or schools that take fees for their services, the family and relatives need to support the student financially. We found in one of the major labour supplying countries that only about 5% of the students in the maritime educational system as a whole took their first exam to become Officer in charge of a navigational watch. Students who do not manage to take the exam usually start their careers as ratings.

17. What can the shipping community do?
To increase the profile of the maritime vocation
The study by ECSA and ETF on career progression in maritime sectors argue that former officers make attractive employees in shore based professions and progress from the middle to top middle management. However, due to the general lack of management or business qualifications, very few progress further.
The Mapping of Career Paths in the Maritime Industries, Southampton Solent University, ECSA, ETF and with the support of European Commission.
The European Community Ship Owner’s Association and European Transport Workers’ Federation state in a study that former seafarers seldom reach more than top middle management when they change career[1]. Well, I am sure that there are many of you attending this seminar holding top management positions who started your career onboard ships. This might be an indication that the requirements to take up a post in a land based organisation may have changed (or that the maritime education was better in the past)
[1] The Mapping of Career Paths in the Maritime Industries, Southampton Solent University, ECSA, ETF and with the support of European Commission,

18. What can the shipping community do?
To increase the profile of the maritime vocation
“ As well as addressing the issue of payment terms and conditions of seafarers, it is also important for social partners to look at working conditions on board vessels which are considered to make the sector less attractive – including long absences away from home.”
Exhaustive analysis of employment trends in all sectors related to sea or using sea recourses, ECOTEC, European Commission.
ECOTEC Research & Consulting also looked into the attractiveness of the profession and stated that: “As well as addressing the issue of payment terms and conditions of seafarers, it is also important for social partners to look at working conditions on board vessels which are considered to make the sector less attractive – including long absences away from home.”[1]
[1] Exhaustive analysis of employment trends in all sectors related to sea or using sea recourses, ECOTEC, European Commission.

19. What can the shipping community do?
To increase the profile of the maritime vocation
“ When asked what should keep our respondents at sea there was a general consensus that more money and increased financial benefits coupled with shorter voyages would be a step in the right direction”
Life at sea survey 2007/08, Shiptalk ltd.
And also a study by Shiptalk ltd stated “When asked what should keep our respondents at sea there was a general consensus that more money and increased financial benefits coupled with shorter voyages would be a step in the right direction.” [1]
[1] Life at sea survey 2007/08, Shiptalk ltd

20. What can the shipping community do?
To increase the profile of the maritime vocation
Good education, possibly leading to an academic path
The importance of promoting skilled seafarers into the shore based employment, such as in administrations, classification societies and shipping companies.
Good working conditions particularly related to tour of duties i.e. equal time onboard as ashore
For me this gives three areas to look further in to:
Good education, possibly leading to an academic path. At least not blocking the possibility for the seafarer to change career.
The importance of promoting skilled seafarers into the shore based structure, such as administrations, classification societies and shipping companies. This gives good PR to those that are in the phase of selecting a career
Good working conditions particularly related to tour of duties i.e. equal time onboard as ashore. It was highlighted several times that this is one of the fundamentals for a social life for those working onboard a ship

21. Seafaring career: Raising the profile
Finally
The frontrunners will be those companies that first recognise the importance of the knowledge gained by well educated seafarers and give them the possibility to manage a good life when they are on leave.
Those companies will indirectly promote and raise the profile of the maritime profession.
Finally I believe that:
The frontrunners will be those companies that first recognise the importance of the knowledge gained by well educated seafarers and give them the possibility to manage a good life when they are on leave.
Those companies will indirectly promote and raise the profile of the maritime profession.

22. Thank you
Thank you